A Time of Rest

I do not believe I have ever been so busy in my entire life! From sun up to well after the sun goes down I've been staying active with school and church and homework and housework and friends. My days seem fantastically long yet by the end of it I wonder how it went by so fast. And yet, through all that is going on I feel more at rest now than I have in all of my adult life. How is that even possible?

I could so easily be stressed out and exhausted. There is always so much to do and always somewhere I need to go. But I'm not stressed, I'm at peace, and I usually feel well rested. This amazes me! Back home I only worked part time, only went to church a couples times a week, was not in school and had very few household responsibilities; yet I would often feel exhausted and overwhelmed with the little bit that I did have to do. So what makes the difference? Why do I feel so at peace and rest now when I am three times as busy as I was before?

I believe this is the key. When I came out here to Redding, I felt the Lord tell me that this would be a time of rest. It was not a time for me to learn how to DO more for God, it was a time for me to learn to BE more for God. Just to be. There is a fine line between being and doing, and from the outside it may look exactly the same. I could be doing exactly the same things I am doing now but if I do it out of a spirit of striving, a spirit of DOING, I would run myself thin and find myself stressed out and exhausted. But instead I have embraced an attitude of intimacy with Christ, an attitude of BEING.

My focus has been so much on Christ these last several weeks, so much on just getting closer to Jesus. I am learning to invite Jesus into everything I do, every moment of the day and just be with him. Whether that by at school or church, in my dorm doing homework, or hanging out with my friends, I am learning to invite Jesus into those moments and have an attitude of being, not doing.

So what does that practically look like? It is one thing to understand this concept in your mind, it is completely another to understand it in action. So much of being has to do with taking whatever task you have to do and giving it to God. I will use myself as an example. The homework load has been quite heavy here at Bethel. We have so much reading to do and so many assignments to complete. Some assignments are very enjoyable and life giving, but others are a lot more difficult to get through. It would be so easy for me to get frustrated and overwhelmed. But I have committed my schoolwork to the Lord. I have said to him, "Lord, I am doing this for your glory. I am doing this so that I can better understand your ways. Take this from me Lord and help me complete it with excellence." Once I've done that I leave the stress of it all in his hands. I just do the work to the best of my abilities, without striving, knowing that God will help me complete it because I have placed it in his hands. As a result, I have finished all of my homework on time, if not well ahead of time (even when I thought I was behind) with no stress and plenty of sleep. How? I don't know, except by the grace of God.

This is just an example of the many ways God has given me grace to rest in the midst of my busyness. I have also found that in those moments that I do have time to truly rest and do nothing I come away feeling more rested then what is natural, because I have also given those times to the Lord.

I am learning so much here at BSSM. I could have written this blog about a number of things. but I felt that this issue of rest is a key topic that God wishes to share with people. So I encourage you to take a moment, find your quiet place with God in the midst of your hectic day and say, "Lord, teach me how to BE more and DO less."

Blessings on all of you Amazing Children of God,

I cherish your continued prayers and support.

Miranda Joy Turpin

The Adventure Begins

I have been here in Redding for just over two weeks now, and what a two weeks it has been! So much has happened in such a short amount of time. It is my goal to keep all of you -my treasured friends, family and supporter- regularly updated on the happenings here at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and the amazing things God does in my life. I have been delayed in starting this blog because I have not had a computer to work with until now. This new computer I am typing on is a total gift from God, and it is exactly what I wanted. I just got it two days ago.

It would be rather painstaking for me to attempt to go back and account for everything that has happened to me these past two weeks, so instead I am going to post excerpts from my personal journal, which I have been keeping up with on almost a daily basis. Even with that, there are still things I am going to miss. God is so good to me 24 hours a day, to record one week of His goodness would take a whole book! But here I will share with you the highlights.

Friday, September 9, 2011
I can't believe I am actually here! I'm writing this sitting on my bed in my dorm room at Simpson University in Redding, CA. I am actually here! I flew out here yesterday.... God is good, I was able to work it out with some other Bethel students to give me a ride from Sacramento to Redding.... I had such a good time with them!... I really praise God that He allowed me to meet them. Otherwise I would have come all the way to my dorm and would have not met a soul. Now I feel like I already have two friends I can call on.... God has done so much to bless me. I can't even write it all down. Like the fact that He gave me exactly the amount of money needed to pay off my first tuition payment, through all the great people who came to my going away party. I am just so amazed by Him, I can't wait to see what he does next!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Yesterday was our first day of class for BSSM. What a start it was! Worship was intense and beautiful. I wonder if it will be like that everyday....Both Kris Vallotton and Bill Johnson spoke to us and they were both amazing. Kris went over Bethel's core values.... He got me really excited for the teachings that will be happening this year. I can't wait to learn all they have to teach us. Bill spoke a message about how Christ came to transform our minds, the way we think.... He preached that once we have witnessed a miracle in our lives it becomes "illegal" for us to think of our problems according to what we don't have. Miracles must become the lens through which we see our next problem. That point really hit me. I have seen some crazy miracles in my life recently. From now on I MUST look at all my problems expecting God to do a miracle! I MUST. Otherwise I will be allowing my heart to be hardened, unchanged. Jesus does miracles so that something inside us can change. I am so excited. School has just barely started!

Saturday, September 17, 2011
During Bill's teaching yesterday I had an impression from God that I would soon have the opportunity to pray for someone's ears. I didn't know anyone that had trouble hearing (at least I didn't know I did). Last night at dinner my friend came in the room, obviously overcome with the Holy Spirit. With a big grin on his face he was practically convulsing under the power, I was surprised he could even walk! He had just come from his revival group meeting. I asked what had happened and all he said was, "My group is the drunk group," (meaning drunk in the Spirit).... He proceeded to tell us that God had healed his left ear and that he was waiting for Him to heal his right one (he had hearing trouble related to narrow Eustachian tubes and seasonal allergies).... Last night there was a little worship gathering in the Simpson University prayer chapel.... Worship was great and the Holy Spirit met us. [God dealt with me personally with some issues of timidity. Another friends prayed for me to have boldness]. After he was finished praying I walked right up to my friend with the hearing trouble and said, "We need to pray for your ears." So another friend of mine and I laid hands on him, prayed for him, commanding his ear ways to open, and God healed him 80% in his right ear and 100% in his left. Praise God!

Saturday, September 17, 2011
Today I went to the healing room at Bethel, not really knowing what to expect. The Holy Spirit was definitely there I could feel His presence and was full of His Joy, much like I've been all this week. But I had people pray for my arm earlier this week and nothing happened, even when He was healing lots of other people. As I sat there today waiting my turn to be prayed for, the enemy tried to convince me that complete healing wasn't for me. But I know it is. God Loves me and wants good things for me. Two people prayed for me. A man and a woman. The Spirit was so sweetly on them. The woman spoke an image over me that filled me with such Joy. She said she saw the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together dancing circles around me, rejoicing over me as the precious daughter. What a beautiful image! I briefly told them my story and had them pray over my arm. At first nothing seemed to be happening. But the second time they had me check it I thought it seemed just a little bit straighter, but I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not. But I told them anyway and we rejoiced together. When we prayed again my arm steadily became straighter and straighter until these was no question I was being healed! Now my arm is almost exactly as straight as my left arm and I can turn my palm all the way up! God has healed me! They had me stand on the stage and give a brief testimony. They had me pray over the crowd and release the anointing of metal related healing. God is so amazing!

These are just some of the amazing things that have happened since I have been here. The first thing I was here God seemed to be doing a lot of outward manifestations and blessings (healings, divine provisions, etc.) the second week He seemed to be dealing a lot more with internal things in me. Restoring promises, braking off chains, releasing things in the spirit, binding other things. A lot of that stuff is between me and God and I will not go into the details here. But I want you to know that the things He is doing inside me are just as marvelous as the things He has been doing on the outside of me.

I want my dear friends and family, and my spiritually family to all know that I am praying for you all and desire you to be greatly blessed by God as I am being blessed. I know there is so much more to come, and I can't wait to share it all with you. I cherish your prayers and support.

Be blessed! You amazing child of God!

Miranda Joy Turpin